Return to Sailing Announcement 28 April 2021

[mrlevin]

Here is the press release:

 

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. Unveils Next Phase of Return to Cruising Outside the U.S.

 

Announces Return to Service of Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises^®

Beginning August 2021 in Europe

Norwegian Cruise Line Continues Phased Relaunch with Voyages in the Mediterranean Beginning September 2021

All Initial Voyages to Operate with Multi-Layered SailSAFE^TM Health and Safety Program Including Mandatory Vaccinations for All Guests and Crew and Universal COVID-19 Testing

Company Awaits Further Discussions with CDC on Proposal Submitted to Re-Start Cruising from the U.S. in July

MIAMI, April 28, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (the “Company”) (NYSE: NCLH), a leading global cruise company which operates the Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises brands, today unveiled the next phase of its long awaited plan to resume cruising outside of the U.S. this summer. Oceania Cruises will resume operations with sailings to Scandinavia and Western Europebeginning in August and Regent Seven Seas Cruises will restart cruising with voyages from the U.K. beginning in September. In addition, Norwegian Cruise Line will continue its phased restart with Mediterranean voyages on board Norwegian Epic and Norwegian Getaway in September, following its previously announced Caribbean and Europe itineraries beginning in July and August. In parallel, the Company continues to await feedback on its proposal submitted to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) on April 5, 2021, outlining its plan to restart cruising from U.S. ports starting July 4th and requesting the CDC lift the Conditional Sail Order. All initial voyages will operate with fully vaccinated guests and crew in addition to the Company’s robust, multi-layered SailSAFE^TM health and safety program, which includes universal COVID-19 testing prior to embarkation.

“We are pleased to unveil the next chapter of our resumption of cruise voyages embarking outside of the U.S. with sailings in Europe on all three of our award-winning brands. We value the health, safety and well-being of our guests, crew and the communities we visit above all else and we have worked tirelessly to develop our science-backed plan to safely resume cruising, including mandatory vaccinations and robust SailSAFE preventative protocols,” said Frank Del Rio, president and chief executive officer of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. “As part of our two-pronged approach to return to cruising within and outside of the U.S., we are simultaneously planning for a potential resumption of cruising from U.S. ports while we await further discussion with the CDC regarding our proposal for a July 4th restart to participate in America’s national opening.”

As part of the Company’s phased return to cruising, Oceania Cruises will restart cruise operations with the Marina in August, resuming her originally published voyage schedule commencing on August 29, 2021 in Copenhagen. Regent Seven Seas Cruises will return to sailing with Seven Seas Splendor cruising from the U.K. beginning September 11, 2021. The voyage will also mark the resumption of Seven Seas Splendor’s inaugural season, with the ship having only completed two cruises with guests after being christened in February 2020. All voyages on these brands, excluding these newly announced voyages, with embarkation dates through September 30, 2021 have been cancelled. Impacted guests on voyages that will not operate will be notified accordingly.

Norwegian Cruise Line will continue its return to cruising with voyages in the Mediterranean during September and October on Norwegian Epic and Norwegian Getaway. Norwegian Epic will cruise seven-night Western Mediterranean itineraries from Sept. 5, 2021 through Oct. 24, 2021 and Norwegian Getaway will sail 10 to 11-day Greek Isles voyages from Rome (Civitavecchia) from Sept. 13, 2021 to Oct. 25, 2021. The Company previously announced its initial restart with sailings originating in Jamaica, Dominican Republic and Greece beginning in July 2021 with Norwegian Joy, Jade and Gem. Certain sailings for Norwegian Cruise Line outside of these newly announced voyages have been cancelled. Impacted guests on voyages that will not operate will be notified accordingly.

The Company continues to expect a phased-in approach to reintroducing additional vessels across its three brands while taking into account the public health environment, global travel restrictions and port availability, among other considerations. All voyages will operate with the Company’s comprehensive SailSAFE health and safety protocols which were developed with leading public health and scientific experts including the Healthy Sail Panel and the SailSAFE Global Health and Wellness Council.

--------------------------

Will be interesting to see if there are any changes in UK round trip, UK to Barcelona, or Barcelona to Venice itineraries.

 

Edited to add:  Oceania has released a further press release; still nothing from Regent; hopefully soon.

Edited April 28, 2021 by mrlevin

[mrlevin]

Here is the announcement from Jason:

 

https://www.rssc.com/Worth-The-Wait

[Pcardad]

Interesting. 😀

[mikenbob]

Fabulous news! Looking forwarding to sailing on Splendor on September 22!

[Ladys Mom]

So excited.  Now I believe we will sail on our NOV.11th Splendor cruise from Athens.

[BSR]

Good news and thanks for posting. 

[ShropshireCritic]

44 minutes ago, Pcardad said:

Interesting. 😀

Closely ties in with your recent 'informed' comments.......all makes logical sense.

I expect the initial cruises will be at a reduced passenger capacity to free up some cabin capacity for the additional restaurant staff required as self service buffets will not be available initially.

[Pcardad]

I thought there would be 60 days from NCL to Regent - I was wrong. I also thought Regent would go at 100%...still looking into that.

[mrlevin]

21 minutes ago, Pcardad said:

I thought there would be 60 days from NCL to Regent - I was wrong. I also thought Regent would go at 100%...still looking into that.

Jason said "appropriate" capacity whatever that means.  One item that surprised me is that Regent Reassurance is still applicable only through sailings embarking by 31 Oct 21; that will now be very few sailings.  

 

The situation with Turkey can certainly heat up so I wouldn't be surprised if there are tweaks along the way.

[Lonedaddy]

I suspect the restart will depend on where the ships are currently located.  Are the voyager and mariner currently in Europe?  If not I doubt the would send them over there to start in October only to sail them back the the Caribbean.  Maybe voyager since it is supposed to head to Africa

[mdunne48]

All Regent ships are currently in Italian ports. 

[Lonedaddy]

1 hour ago, mdunne48 said:

All Regent ships are currently in Italian ports. 

That is good for the mariner starting in October sometime

[Pcardad]

I expect Explorer to start 2nd but a lot will do with where existing itineraries are booked. Regent doesn't want to alter existing bookings if possible. I think we are entering into a time of cancellations based on destination.

[GOARMY]

Still hoping to board Mariner at Barcelona on October 31st for TA to Miami.  (Or, maybe just to Bermuda!).  

 

GOARMY!

 

[Lonedaddy]

aside from destination decisions and getting the ships to those start points they need to train all the crew on the safe sail protocols.  

 

 

Mariner could start oct 4 rome-ven , 16th ven rome, 23 rome to barca, or 31 barca TA.    Question is will they want to get the ship crew up and running prior to long TA.  The oct 4 is not yet full but may fill with other cancelations or they may want to start with it below 100%  I suspect they will try to start on the oct 4th but could go as late as oct 23rd.  

 

Explorer has to get to Asia in order for oct 11 Tokyo RT start or 23 out of Tokyo RT  most and then nov 2 tokyo to HK.  They may modify some of the itineraries for explorer as it is schedule to port in Australia and NZ prior to 2022 and unclear if AZ/NZ will open borders.  I think the explorer schedule might be at the highest risk for change.    If they intend to start this second they will have to set sail early to reach tokyo.  Perhaps they would create a new itinerary for the sail and offer it first to those that were cancelled.  The explorer IMHOP is the most at risk for completely revamped schedule.  

 

Voyager is schedule on a 20 day from rome to abu dahbi on oct 3 and then to south africa from there on oct 30th  I suspect they may just steam to abu dahbi and start on the 30th to SA.  they may do a test run from rome to abudahbi without all the stops.

 

Navagator is due out of Montreal oct 4 NY oct 14 and back out of Montreal 24th heading to Miami.  I suspect given all the issues with canada that the may start up out of miami to rio nov 5th but may decided to change ports based on brazils situation.  I suspect they may start her up on the 5th out of miami.  Maybe they will add a TA test run.

 

 

Just my opinions but what the heck all we have is time to discuss and speculate.  We are scheduled on the mariner oct 4 so I guess we are on the bubble right now.    I'm done shifting - if mariner doesn't go we will just travel by land in Italy or Spain during the "cruise gap"  obviously depending on if those countries open up.

 

Edited April 28, 2021 by Lonedaddy

[Pcardad]

Explorer 9/22 has been cancelled.

[GOARMY]

Mariner reference October 31st TA now shows "Waitlist" in all categories.  This is a change from two days ago which still showed "Available" in a few categories. 

 

Not a good sign.  Unless--will sail with reduced capacity.  At this point--glass half full rather than a half empty perspective.    

 

GOARMY!

 

 

[Jimmcdaniel]

1 hour ago, Lonedaddy said:

aside from destination decisions and getting the ships to those start points they need to train all the crew on the safe sail protocols.  

 

 

.  

 

Voyager is schedule on a 20 day from rome to abu dahbi on oct 3 and then to south africa from there on oct 30th  I suspect they may just steam to abu dahbi and start on the 30th to SA.  they may do a test run from rome to abudahbi without all the stops.

 

 

 

I hope you are right on this one. We are on the Voyager Abu Dhabi - Cape Town and it looks like our last chance for a Regent cruise this tear. 🤞🤞

 

In the meantime we are headed to SA in June on a land trip for safaris. 

[wishIweretravelling]

1 hour ago, Pcardad said:

Explorer 9/22 has been cancelled.

Do you mean 9/21? 

[pingpong1]

1 hour ago, GOARMY said:

Mariner reference October 31st TA now shows "Waitlist" in all categories.  This is a change from two days ago which still showed "Available" in a few categories. 

 

Not a good sign.  Unless--will sail with reduced capacity.  At this point--glass half full rather than a half empty perspective.    

 

GOARMY!

 

 

Hey Army - Interestingly enough, I just noticed that every "Mariner" cruise from yours, starting on Oct 31, right on through the end of the year, including my "Mariner" cruise from Miami (through the Panama Canal) to San Francisco....and right up through May 5 in the Pacific is now completely waitlisted.  Hmmmm??  Any thoughts from anyone??

[Pcardad]

43 minutes ago, wishIweretravelling said:

Do you mean 9/21? 

 

Nope, I meant Explorer September 22 from Vancouver to Tokyo. Sry I wasn't clearer...=)

[Pcardad]

1 minute ago, pingpong1 said:

Hey Army - Interestingly enough, I just noticed that every "Mariner" cruise from yours, starting on Oct 31, right on through the end of the year, including my "Mariner" cruise from Miami (through the Panama Canal) to San Francisco....and right up through May 5 in the Pacific is now completely waitlisted.  Hmmmm??  Any thoughts from anyone??

 

At this point, they are probably deciding what % capacity to run at....but I also expect them to cancel by destination as we move forward.

[GOARMY]

Another Pong back to Ping (and Pcardad):

 

Blast!  Our next scheduled cruise after Barcelona-Miami IS back aboard Mariner at Tokyo next April 15th for a 20-day crossing ending at San Francisco.  That one takes the place of a rather similar April-May 2021 cruise we had set up for Explorer which was to have ended at Vancouver, B.C.  But--

 

So, it is just a matter of time for the dominoes to start falling as to cancelations.   As Shakespeare would opine:  "The waiting is All."

 

GOARMY!

 

 

[loriva]

3 hours ago, pingpong1 said:

Hey Army - Interestingly enough, I just noticed that every "Mariner" cruise from yours, starting on Oct 31, right on through the end of the year, including my "Mariner" cruise from Miami (through the Panama Canal) to San Francisco....and right up through May 5 in the Pacific is now completely waitlisted.  Hmmmm??  Any thoughts from anyone??

 

3 hours ago, Pcardad said:

 

At this point, they are probably deciding what % capacity to run at....but I also expect them to cancel by destination as we move forward.

 

Mariner from 05 Jan through 05 May is the 2022 World Cruise.  Many segments of it have been completely waitlisted for months.  (I'm not sure what the availability of the full WC was prior to the last batch of cruises Regent put on "Waitlist" status.)  Hoping we will finally get to experience Regent on the Papeete to Auckland segment of the WC on Mariner after our first three bookings have been cancelled.

[Pcardad]

2 minutes ago, loriva said:

 

 

Mariner from 05 Jan through 05 May is the 2022 World Cruise.  Many segments of it have been completely waitlisted for months.  (I'm not sure what the availability of the full WC was prior to the last batch of cruises Regent put on "Waitlist" status.)  Hoping we will finally get to experience Regent on the Papeete to Auckland segment of the WC on Mariner after our first three bookings have been cancelled.

That leg is legit waitlisted...I grabbed the last 3 cabins a couple weeks ago. I think it will sail...